Tag Archives: Austerity

London, United Kingdom – The UK has become the first country in the world to be placed under investigation by the United Nations for violating the human rights of people with disabilities amid fears that thousands may have died as a consequence of controversial welfare reforms and austerity-driven cuts to benefits and care budgets.

UN inspectors are expected to arrive in the country within days to begin collecting evidence to determine whether the British government has committed “systematic and grave violations” of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

London, United Kingdom – Activists and trade union leaders have called for a general strike and a mass campaign of civil disobedience to bring down the country’s new right-wing government as hundreds of thousands took to the streets of London and other cities to protest against austerity and public service cuts.

Thousands march against austerity [Photos by Simon Hooper]

Thousands march against austerity [Photos by Simon Hooper]

Thousands march against austerity [Photos by Simon Hooper]

Thousands march against austerity [Photos by Simon Hooper]

Thousands march against austerity [Photos by Simon Hooper]

Thousands march against austerity [Photos by Simon Hooper]

Thousands march against austerity [Photos by Simon Hooper]

Thousands march against austerity [Photos by Simon Hooper]

Thousands march against austerity [Photos by Simon Hooper]

Organisers said a quarter of a million people had joined Saturday’s march from the Bank of England to the Houses of Parliament, with smaller protests also taking place in Glasgow, Liverpool, and Bristol, and pledged the event was only a beginning.

“We’ve got to get rid of this government quicker than five years. This government cannot last the full term,” Sam Fairbairn, national secretary of the People’s Assembly, the anti-austerity campaign group that organised the march, told a rally in Parliament Square.